Note: there are sev­eral ver­sions of the back-​strengthener exer­cise, lis­ted below in order of dif­fi­culty

What it’s good for

Strengthens the long muscles of your back that run either side of the spine and sup­port all the spinal ver­teb­rae. The added muscle strength takes pres­sure off the back­bone, redu­cing the like­li­hood of back pain. Everyday examples of the bene­fits of this exer­cise include:

You can sit, stand and walk upright with good pos­ture for longer without get­ting back ache or neck pain

Reduced back and neck pain if you have arth­ritis or sim­ilar spinal prob­lems

You stay taller, look straighter and less aged

Helps to pre­vent shoulder hunch­ing and the gradual round­ing of the top of the back

How often to do it

Daily

Equipment you’ll need

A mat, rug, car­pet, towel or any­thing else you can lie on com­fort­ably on the floorA small cush­ion or book

Lie face down with arms by your sides

Rest your fore­head on a small cush­ion to stop your head “hanging” and caus­ing neck strain

Turn your arms so that palms are flat on the ground. This may be uncom­fort­able if you have very tight shoulders — see chest stretch

Draw in lower abs gently and lift your chest away from the ground, length­en­ing your head for­wards as you rise. Keep look­ing at the corner of the floor, so you’re not temp­ted to pull your neck back

Don’t lift too high: if you feel your lower back scrunch­ing, you have gone a bit too far, so just relax a frac­tion

Varying the exer­cise for more chal­lenge

Once you can do 10 good qual­ity back raises, you need to make the exer­cise a bit harder to con­tinue strength­en­ing your muscles. Firstly, add more sets of 10, so that you are doing 3 to 5 lots of 10 daily. Then, work through the rest of the pro­gres­sions lis­ted here. They are in order of dif­ficuly, so next up is no 4.